Peek a boo

Kiera has delighted herself in figuring out how to play Peek A boo with us. A week or so ago she started holding her arms up to her face, thinking she was covering herself, and giggling when she put her arms down. This morning she really mastered it, because she lifted up her shirt, covered her face, waited a few seconds, and dropped it. She giggled hysterically. it was pretty cute. she is so smart. I am convinced that she thinks she disappears when she does it.

What's that?

So I was starting to wonder if I was crazy thinking my baby was saying "what's that?" to everything. but Grandma Q said she WAS saying that. She sometimes points, and there I am telling her the name for everything within view including colour. I have no idea if its sinking in or not.

Her other latest and greatest is throwing her soother/binky/pacifier out of her crib when she is mad or just for fun. I come in, and there it is, in the middle of the floor. I can only conclude its her throwing it.

My in laws are here for a few days, and they've even promised us a DATE NIGHT! wha hoo! I guess we'll get our valentines date after all. Doug gets home tonight, finally, I am looking forward to seeing him.

Cheerios And Travels

I have decided that Cheerios are worth their wieght in gold, for a number of reasons. First off, on the plane I can give them to her constantly and they keep her happy. That in itself makes cheerios a very loved item. She would eat them ALL day if I let her. Secondly, the entertainment they afford, from her UMMMMMMM's to her stuffing her face is all quite funny.
I keep the Cheerios in the living room as I am constantly replenshing her supply. The box was sitting by the couch. Well she was crawling all over and I was keeping an eye on her, and I knew she was sitting right beside the couch. It turns out she had taken the box and dumped it in an effort to get what she wanted. So there she was, with her mountain of Cheerios, happily snacking. Of course, I had to take a picture. I am going to get Doug to figure out how in the heck to post pics on this darn thing.

She did very well yesterday in spite of our gruelling trip home. We arrived in Salt Lake at 730pm to a "volunteers needed" sign for our flight. I knew the next flight was also terrible, so I called my friends. We ended up crashing at my friend Daphnes house. problem being I had no crib, as its at my parents. So I had to sleep with her, which never works well. For the first half of the night, she slept in her pseudo bed, beside me on the floor, between two dressers. Then she woke up in the middle of the night, sat straight up which she is in the habit of doing and hit her head on the dresser. then she yelled more. so I brought her to bed for the second half of the night. then we had all day to kill. We dropped Daphne off for her piano lesson and I went and got Bentleys bordotello shot, and then drove him to little dogs, where he ran around all day. Then we went to lunch and a movie. a movie! with a baby! Actually, she did pretty good. I just hung out near the door and let her crawl for a bit, and then put her to bed when she was ready. she slept half the movie. don't think I would try it for anything more than a matinee though. Then her husband picked us up and we hang out at his parents house and then he drove us to the airport hours later, CHEERIOS IN HAND for that same flight 24 hours later. we got on the flight, but had to sit on the tarmac for an HOUR!!!!!! Sitting with a baby and a dog on the tarmac for an hour is SO NOT FUN. I would not recommend it at all. She, of course, was her charming little self, giggling and waving to the seat behind us. Jumping up and down, wanting to pet Bentley, who did not want to be petted. Thinking about biting mum. it was LOADS of fun. Highly recommended. By the time I rolled in, I was EXHAUSTED, as it had been just me and the baby and Bentley for the past 24 hours. The door was locked. Now, normally this would not be an issue, but our tenant has the key so she could do her laundry. So at midnight I had to wake her up and get the key. And Bentley, bless his little doggie heart, was a very good boy and went straight to bed. But he made up for that today and ran away when there was an open door. without a collar. I ran around the nieghbourhood calling his name with no avail. I dropped her off with the nieghbour to look more extensively, when he showed up. He knew he was in trouble, he would not come to me, which is not normal for him. I might break out too if I was a dog that just didn't get walked very much. But he had FUN yesterday..so really.
My inlaws are coming tomorrow, and I am suppose to be cleaning my house. *sigh*. I am too tired to be cleaning my house.. I think I will just have the guest bedroom ready.

Total exaggeration

First off, I have VERY VERY rarely asked Doug to do ANYTHING in the middle of the night. He makes it sound like every night I ask him to get up. Most of the time it would be fruitless as he is completely incoherant in the AM hours. All I am asking, which I think is reasonable, is EVERY ONCE and a while to attend her, especially when she won't respond to me at all. and I DID NOT just plop her on him and say go for it. I had tried all ready for a half an hour, the 3rd time that night I might add, to calm her down. I brought her to bed with us in an effort to quiet her. It was not working. He got mad, that is when I said go for it, because nothing I am doing is working. AND to top if off, I guess I am suppose to be so nice about it at 4am as well. I am suppose to be all sweet and say "oh Doug, please help." whatever.

Anyway. We are at grandma q's today, and I SLEPT IN!!! we made a deal last night that if I got up with her in the middle of the night, he would get up with her AM. So he did. and I slept in until 830am. funny that that is considered a sleep in now. Doug brought her downstairs, and put her on the floor. She did not know that I was there, because I hid under the covers. She crawled right over to our bed and for a while I just watched her, then I lifted the sheet and said BOO! She laughed like it was the FUNNIEST thing she had ever seen in her life. So of course I did it again...and she giggled hysterically again. Daddy got to watch the whole thing and amusement was provided for all.

But thanks everyone for your advice and comments. We will get this whole division of labour figured out I think. we have to.

Straightening the Story

This is Doug posting, after reading candice's post and the replies, I felt like I needed to blog my side of this story. I think the thing candice was missing in her post, is that our discussion was regarding days, or nights really, before I have to go to work. This all started one early morning (about 4am) when I had to work a 13 hour day starting at 6am which meant I had to get up at 5am. Kiera was being something of a beast, she wasnt sleeping, and candice was getting frustrated. Finally she brought Kiera into our room at 4am and put Kiera on me and told me to deal with her. I didnt think that was the best moment to ask for my help, and I said so. I am fine with helping on my off days, I think that is totally fair. One difficulty I think candice has with my offer of help is that I usually dont wake up when the baby cries. If I am woken up it takes me a few minutes to become functional, so usually candice simply takes care of the problem because she cant sleep while the baby cries, and most likely by the time I were to hear the baby, wake up and get out of bed, she could already be back in bed again sleeping if she were to just take care of it herself. Candice also gets her "goddess nights" where she and her friends go out (usually on a friday night) and pretend they are all single and have no cares in the world until 2 am, so in answer to a certain reply I do feel like candice has the chance once in a while to "blow off some steam".

So our question is..... Is it reasonable to ask someone who is going to be working a 8-13 hour day and needs to be somewhat functional at the end of their day, to share the responsibilities of getting up a few times in the middle of the night every night. For me personally, I dont think I function very well with a lack of sleep, and not getting a good nights rest before working, while unavoidable at times, is not something I would like to plan on doing regularly. If candice is about to loose it, then even if it is a work day, I have no problem helping once in a while. For example if she said at 4am on a work day something like "I know you have to work, but I am about to loose it (or some other special circumstance) could you take care of her for a bit", I think that is reasonable. But to plan on waking up 2-3 times a night then going to work and then doing it all over again the next night would simply leave me a zombie.... I have to call uncle on that idea

Sick Chick Day 4

Well I am not exactly sure what is going on in that little body of hers. Yesterday morning, she seemed pretty much back to her self, other than a bit more tired then usual.
But last night she slept TERRIBLY and I was so tired, and she has been getting up so much that when she woke up for the 3rd time at 3am, I let her cry. she cried for a long time. but I also dont' want to reinforce her getting up so much in the middle of the night. At 530 she woke up again, and complained cried for an hour or so until I went and got her. At this point I really wanted Doug to get his butt out of bed and help me. He never hears her in the middle of the night, so its just uniteruppted sleep for me. I really wanted to sleep for another hour or so. She sat there in bed with us, complaining, though not really loudly, about her treatment last night. After 25 minutes of me going to a full awakened state, Doug took her to give her breakfast. She ate breakfast and was ready for bed again. She slept so much today it was crazy. I am kind of dreading tonight as Doug is gone (not that it makes a huge difference when he is here at night anyway), but its all me for the next 24 hours. I hope she sleeps. Please baby sleep. I seriously think she was up for about 4 hours today. If she is not better by tomorrow, I think I might take her in again. She was still running a fever today. Its quite worrisome I would say.

So, that leaves me to ask you all a question. In what circumstance should Doug help me? He says he shouldn't have to get out of bed early today, 715am, because he had to work at noon. The thing is, I have had many sleepless nights and not once has Doug gotten up with her to let me sleep in since Christmas at his parents house. At work, yes he is working, he sleeps in a large bed all to himself and can sleep in as late as he wants. I don't get that luxury. Am I crazy to ask him to do this once and a while? Especially because he sleeps through her crying all the time. So opinions please on the division of labour. AND if you really want to leave it anonymous, go ahead,I just want some advice. Oh yes, I might add that Doug went BACK to bed for another hour of uniteruppted sleep after he fed her. I could not go back to sleep.

Lipstick and Socialisation

Kiera gets a really big kick out of me putting lipstick on her. My lips have been dry as of late, so I am actually using chapstick instead. So I put it on and then she offers her lips to me like I am suppose to put it on her too. So I do. she tries to eat it, because it smells like cherry and makes your lips feel all warm.

So that begs the question...if Kiera was a Kieran, would he do the same thing? She is only imitating me because she wants to be like me. And if she was a he, would I do it? put the chapstick on him I mean? or would I only reinforce that boys don't wear lipstick and discourage his imitation? hmmmm, don't know. I guess I will have to have a boy to find out. Did you know that "tomboys" are usually more socially adjusted then their peers and have friends of both genders and move in and out of those groups easily? (that was just for Ro, by the way)
So, she is mostly okay I think. She either threw up again in her bed this morning, or it was a leaky diaper. not sure which. but her fever is down and she is back to her snorting, giggly self. she is so cute and I am glad she is back to her demanding self.

My baby is a sick chick

After this morning, which I thought was the result of too much food, she threw up another 3 times. In the car, on the way to another house, she ralphed in the back seat and I didn't even realise it. I went to pick her up and it was all over the car seat and the back of her pants. She was so sad and listless. She wasn't even crying, that is how sick she is. apparently that is too much energy. She has diarrhea and is running a fever.

Brought her to the doc and all they said was she has a virus that needs to be fixed with TIME. That is all I can do for miss precious girl. I need to give her pedialite and hope she doesn't get dehydrated and my milk does not dry up, cause I can't feed her either.

I feel so sad for her, she is totally not herself.
No date night for us tonight. Ah, the joys of being parents. She is sleeping again and I hope that helps.

Daddy's day with Kiera

Mum left at about noon leaving daddy with Kiera for the longest stint every in their history. Of course I called regularly to see how things were going. But most of the time there was no answer.

So their day went something like this. As soon as I left, she was put to bed for her afternoon nap. But she was sitting up and Doug could see her on the camera and every time she almost feel asleep she would fall over and hit her head on the crib and sit up and complain again. So daddy went in and fixed her. She slept for 45 minutes. Then her and daddy went on a walk about the town, strapped to his front chest. She was loving it and apparently sang and chatted the whole time. They came home and had dinner, a very tired daddy and Bentley in tow. She crawled right to the tub and demanded her bath. So she got her bath and then went right to sleep in daddies arms.

I came home at roughly 10pm, worse for the wear. The music was still going and I went there to shut it off for the evening. she woke up...hmmm..what that intentional on my part? She ate and ate lots. Her tummy was VERY full.

So this morning I went in there to get her and it smelled a lot like sour milk. She had thrown up the contents of her belly all over her crib. Then she had made a massive dropping in her pants, so huge it was going down her leg and was all over her pj's. to top it off her nose was running like a faucet. Some puke was all hardened in her hair. it was very sad. I gave her a bath immediately. cuddled with her, fed her some breakfast and a short hour later she is back in bed, for her morning nap.

I couldn't believe how much I missed her yesterday. I saw another baby close to her age and it made me miss her more. I wanted to eat her when I got home. she is so cute....

My baby's got a shiner

And oh my is it a pretty one. Yesterday, while I was doing laundry, she was standing up and took a tumble. she had nothing to hold onto and fell kind of ackwardly. I knew she was upset, she screamed, but then she always screams when she falls, even if its not a big deal. I brought her outside to distract her from her screeching fit and that seemed to calm her and she forgot about it. and I forgot about it, until later when her eye turned all pink and puffy. I put her to bed her usual time and she woke up later very unhappy. I gave her her fave food again and gave her a lavender bath. I now wonder if it was her eye hurting her and she was crying about that. did I give her any pain medication? no. I am a VERY bad mum.
Today I am off to Denver, and daddy gets to watch her almost for the whole day. That should be interesting. Hopefully I don't end up in too much pain, if ya know what I mean.

uh-oh

Courtesy of teletubbies, is her latest and greatest. Well and mum. I say uh oh, and she says oh oh, can't get the sound yet on the first part. But she imitates me and its quite cute.

Hates green beans, like her mum. Won't open her mouth if I feed them to her. She apparently does not like ravoili either, because she wouldn't touch it today. She is such an odd kid sometimes I swear. If I am eating something she YELLS at me until I give her bits and pieces. Today I was having some chips, I psyched her out and gave her Cheerios instead. In the morning she munches in Cheerios while mum eats her breakfast, then I make her morning cereal, consisting of dried food and I stir in some kind of fruit. hmmm mmm good, but it must be because she always tells me how much she likes it when she says HMMMMMMM loudly with food in her mouth.
Bentley was a crack me up last night...I brought her to bed with me at 330am thinking she would SLEEP, HA! But Bentley was all nice and cozy under the covers and he came out and was SERIOUSLY ticked at the baby for waking him from his slumber. Like he came right up to her face, I looked at him and said "touch her and die" and he licked my face right after that and went to the end of the bed in a huff. I deposited her back in her bed when it became obvious she was not going to sleep. I heard nothing until 7am. After of course, I had been up for an hour listening for her. this middle of the night thing REALLY has to stop. I am getting very tired.
Other than that, my house is VERY clean all of my laundry done (except for the dish rags I forgot, and the clothes I am wearing). My bathrooms have been scrubbed, well, toilet and sink and floors, and all carpets vacuumed. So I feel that I have had a very productive day. Even got a quote to change our laundry room across the hall. you'd think it wouldn't be that crazy expensive, but apparently its going to be quite a project, ripping out ceilings, etc. fun. not really.

Sleeping and Percentiles

Well it looks as though my baby has shrunk. Not really. But for wieght she is still only in the 15th percentile, and for hieght, instead of 90% like she was last time, she is now in the 50%. Pretty average baby. I thought maybe we were gonna have this super model baby who was tall and skinny. Doug used to bug me about being jealous. nice.

So yesterday she did this wierd thing where she woke up at 4am and was VERY awake. I fed her and put her back to bed, she was quiet for 20 minutes and then started screeching. Daddy had to wake up at 5 to go to work, he was not avery happy camper. So I brought her to bed with us, where she proceeded to crawl all over him. He got upset with ME (!!) like it was my fault. so I put her back to bed again, well she cried more! Doug got up 15 minutes later and kindly brought the screaming child to me while I was laying there. He was apparently punishing me. I don't have any problems having her come to bed with me, but he had lights on and was running around. When you are trying to get a baby to sleep, you don't do stuff to convince them its morning! argh. so daddy got to leave the screaming baby with me. She cried for another half an hour and went back to sleep until about 8ish. Not a very good start to my day.

She really does love her teletubbies. This is the time when I will sneak into the shower. She actually starting bouncing in my lap this morning when that baby came over the hill giggling. It was super cute. of course.

Bentley and his ball

Bentley is only beginning to figure out that not only is Kiera a supplier of food, but is also becoming a potential playmate!

He has this blue ball he loves to play with and will often offer to her as if asking PLEASE PLAY WITH ME. I AM DESPERATE. and she picks it up and holds it and he'll take it away and give it back to her again. He is pretty gentle with her, except when he gets REALLY excited, he has been known to not knock her over, but startle her so she is upset. And if I am down on the ground, he is ALL over me trying to get my attention AWAY from that darn baby. I think he has a love/hate relationship with her. but I know he gets very concerned when she is crying and upset.

So she is starting to feel better, and is sleeping MUCH better this week than last. Which makes mum very much happier. Now I know when she is like that, she is getting SICK. Chalk that one up to things to remember.

Today when daddy got home, we opened the door and she saw her daddy. she had her biggest smile ever and daddy waved to her, she waved frantically back at home grinning the whole time. She was very happy, and much more rested after her nap.

Happy days for Kiera and mum

Daddy went to work VERY early this morning, so it was just Kiera and I for the day.
In spite of her snotty nosedness, she was a happy chick. We went to church with a friend (another story all together) and came home to hang out. We watched the superbowl half time show with Paul, and then I gave her a nice lavender bath (supplied by mamere months ago) as a prelude to bed. I think I may have to add that every night now as a relaxation thing. She has now been asleep since 7pm, thank goodness. hopefully she stays that way until tomorrow morning!
At church this morning she danced as much as she could while the music was playing and even tried to sing toward the end. It was of course, adorable and cute.

Doc's office and other stats

Yesterday morning Miss Kiera went to see the doc for her nine month appointment. Did mum have her shot records? no. does that make me a bad mum? probably. I still can't get used to this whole health care system here. we switched insurance providers, so that means we had to switch doctors. I need to find a pediatrician, not just a general health care doc.

So she wieghs 16'7 now. I have no idea what percentile that is in because I forgot to ask. And she is 27'5". That means she has gained 2 pounds and a bit since her six month, and she has grown half and inch. I am going to call the office on Monday to find out percentiles.

I went out last night with some friends for a much needed break. It was lots of fun. Her and her dada hung out for the evening and she managed to do a pretty good chunk of time from 10:15ish until 6:30, then went to sleep again until 8am. which I really needed because I was out late last night!
When she awoke this morning however, her face was covered in dried boggers. Kiera is experiencing her first official very nasty cold. She sneezed while I was feeding her in bed and I made Doug get up and kleenex lest I get boggers all over me. He was less than impressed, which I think he should just suck up as I get up with her ALL the time and this is one measly little morning! but happily, we all went back to sleep for a bit. And surprisingly enough, she is actually pretty happy in spite of her cold.

She is now down for her morning nap. A nice long 2 hours would be great, but I know that is hoping for a lot!

Bad day for Kiera and Mummy

She slept horridly yesterday. in fact she had ONE nap ALL day for an hour! She fell asleep at 530, thinking she would sleep all night, but she woke up at 800pm screaming and proceeded to scream for 3 hours. I went and got her at 9ish and then put her to bed around 10, she didn't fall asleep until after 11. Then she woke up at 350 and again at 645. When I came in at 350, I had been waiting for the day when I would walk in and see her standing in her crib and there she was. Standing. Very happy. Mum notsohappy.

So now she is in her crib, I am attempting to make her sleep. she has been miserable for the past 24 hours and I am not sure if she is sick or not. I am a bad mum for not knowing. But she is going to the doc's tomorrow, so I guess I will find out. Must find thermometer.

Daddy is not here, so mummy is even more miserable because she gets NO BREAK from screaming baby. I don't know what to do. Why don't they come with manuels???

Dancing baby!

I also wanted to mention that Kiera loves to dance! Put on any kind of music, even when we sing to her, and she boogies! Just like her mum used to do when she was a baby...ha! Her mum never stopped dancing!

This morning I was whitening my teeth while Kiera was suppose to be napping. Well she would not have napping and I went in to get her with my trays on my teeth. she thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen. I couldn't talk so I just made goofy faces at her which she thought were also very funny. She definitely has a fun sense of humour.

A day in the life

of a 9 month old baby. Is ohsointeresting...

This blog is for those of you who want to know how little Miss Kiera Elise is doing and what her latest and greatest is. I think I will be doing the writing primarily, but who knows, her daddy may pitch in and write something of his own.

The night we got home from our long day of travelling, I was sitting in the rocker in her bedroom feeding her. She had no been home in 2 weeks and the look on her face was pretty funny. She stopped eating, looked around, and got this look like I KNOW THIS PLACE, I'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE. I said to her "yes, this is your bedroom.." She went to sleep quite happily.
Her past achievements since Christmas have included:
2 new teeth, that had been threatening for quite sometime to come in, came in a couple of days after we got home.
Crawling. She has mastered this since we got home. She was really starting a couple of weeks ago, but a 3 faceplants in one day really put her off to doing in for a while. But now she has mastered it and I can no longer leave her and trust she will be in the same place as when I left her.
Cruising. She is moving from chair to chair to couch, to Bentley. whatever is there to grab onto! She is as pleased as punch with herself, and only did one face plant yesterday! she mostly falls on her bum now. Which is good.
I also enlisted her at a baby modelling agency. We will see if she gets anything at all. I hope she does. She sure is cute! And grins at strangers!

She has also taken a liking to Teletubbies. They move slow and speak her language. She waves at them hello and goodbye when they wave. she also just waves at people on tv randomly. its quite cute.

She is also frustrated at her lack of movement. She really wants to walk and yells when she can't get to where she wants to go. She makes her displeasure known. She is still easy to distract when she has something she shouldn't though.

She really enjoys self feeding, though will still tolerate being fed. I have given her some chicken to munch on which she likes and the other day I gave her a cupcake for the first time with chocolate icing. It was all over, but SO cute, so of course I took a picture. Yesterday I also gave her some lasgane, which she loved...and could stick in her face easily. Bentley is VERY happy to help with the clean up and whatever she throws in the floor. She is also starting to "offer" him her cookie, or whatever else she has in her hand. that too is very cute.

She hasn't had much for words as of late. She will happily imitate whatever I said if she knows how to say it. She is trying to call Bentley something, what I am not sure, so I encourage her whenever she looks at him and "talks". So her vocabulary is still mum, dada, and up. I wish I had that one on tape, it was as clear as a bell the other day. She also seems to be "asking" the names of things, like her hands. so I tell her all her body parts on a regular basis, someday she'll say 'em!
She is also acting like she may want to be weaned. Not as interested as before. I think it may be because there are way too many interesting things going on to be with mum!

So that is all for now, I am writing this down not only for you, but for her as well so we remember what she does!

This is a test...a what? a test...